


Shipping it

by LocalVodkaAunt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Fandom fic, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Pidge is a Blackmail Pro, Pining, Soft shance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 05:10:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17781182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LocalVodkaAunt/pseuds/LocalVodkaAunt
Summary: Shiro has been dying to get to know Lance better. Pidge decides they need the help of their fandom.





	Shipping it

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Shance Valnetines Exschange 2019. 
> 
> Candence, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it! I hope you have a good Valentine's! 
> 
>  
> 
> As always folks, tell what you liked or didn't liked in the comments or just drop me an emoji! :D

It all starts with Pidge.

 

Which is not really surprising, because honestly, every time stuff like this goes down, it starts with them. So one moment, Shiro makes his way out of the studio, trying to ignore Coran, the director, who yells his name and Hunk, the Caterer, who wants to write down his meal plan for next week, the next he is cornered by Pidge, who is grinning maliciously.

 

This can’t be good.

 

“Look at your phone,” they tell him. And for a moment or two, Shiro is seriously tempted to throw his phone on the floor and step on it instead. If it has to do with Pidge, and tech, there are only two ways how this will turn out:

 

 _Either_ they have found blackmail material about him and will try to get him to finance them a lifetime supply of sweets _or_ they now have some really embarrassing gossip about one of the crew members and either way, Shiro just knows he doesn’t want to find out.

 

Pidge notices his hesitation and their grin widens. “Go ahead, look at it. Or do you want everyone to know which songs you sing in the communal showers?”

 

Shiro curses the day he forgot to close the windows in the bathroom. It could have happened every other day, but on this fateful occasion his phone had played the entire soundtrack of The Lion King on shuffle and he didn’t have it in him to not sing along. But he really doesn’t want the others to find out, especially Lance, who would never let him live that one down. Or worse, ask him out to a karaoke night.

 

It’s not that Shiro would mind spending some time with Lance aside from work, but… well, he doesn’t imagine it to be like that, okay? He wants to at least try to make the impression of a normal person if they ever meet outside the set.

 

Swallowing thickly, he reaches into his pocket. He has several new messages from Pidge, and at their challenging glare, unlocks it with shaking hands.

 

At first glance, it’s just pictures. And not even photos, just drawn pictures of people. He is about to be relieved, because if the pictures are drawn then they couldn’t possibly be used to blackmail him, when he notices who is on them.

 

It’s him. And Lance.

 

On the first picture, they are in a diner together, sitting opposite each other, each one before a big burger with fries (Shiro doesn’t know when he last ate fries, the ridiculous amount of muscle mass he had to put on for the Voltron movie demands a strict diet regimen). It looks fairly ordinary despite Shiro knowing this scene has never happened. This must be fanart then. He looks a bit closer and notices that, under the table, Lances and his legs are tangled in each other. They are both smiling.

 

The second picture is not better. It’s Lance and him, again, and they are drawn in close up in what appears to be right before they are about to kiss.

 

His cheeks grow red immediately and he feels uncomfortably hot in his costume all of a sudden. When he looks up on the phone, Pidge is still watching him, the malicious grin turned triumphant.

 

“Found that on the internet today. I thought you’d appreciate the...inspiration.” They turn around and leave, not once looking back at Shiro.

 

His head runs a mile a minute. He knows some fans are into bending the reality according to their wishes and he has seen some montages or gif sets of himself with former co-stars already. But he wouldn’t have thought someone would think like that over him and Lance- hell, they haven’t even talked to each other outside of work. Their only common interest is Keith, who has fallen into an uneasy kind of rivalry friendship with Lance and who regularly complains about him when they meet up in the evening for a beer or a talk.

 

He hears Coran approaching behind him, his jovial voice speaking into a phone as he usually is and flees the studio to not have his break taken away from him. As fast as he can, he makes his way to his trailer, pulls the door shut and turns the lock.

 

Then he sits down on his bed and pulls up the pictures again.

 

Some are beautiful, and very romantic, stolen glances and one of them blushing. Some are almost filthy, with Lance grinning playfully at him while grabbing a tie, or Shiro hovering over him while his hands are busy undressing Lance.

 

He doesn’t know what to make of them.

 

His face is hot when he puts his phone down again, so many questions swirling through his mind. What do other people see in them, that they obviously don’t? Lance never approached him. He is friendly, sometimes flirty with Shiro and even more so if they are at a public event, but that is just his public persona. Even on set, he flirts with everyone, that’s just how he gets around. At some point or another, Shiro wanted to ask him about something he mentioned, if he misses Cuba or his family, wants to make sure everyone treats him right because he knows from Keith racism is alive and well, even on set. He has asked himself several times if Lance also had read the comics of the movie they are making as a kid and saw himself in the characters.

 

But every time he is about to open his mouth, he chickens out.

 

Lance is almost always surrounded by people. He gets along really well with Hunk and Pidge, and him and Keith get in fights at least three times a day. And Shiro is not generally a shy person it’s just- he feels like he’d make a fool of himself in front of the others and somehow he couldn’t handle that (especially because it would surely add to Pidges ever growing blackmail collection).

 

On a few occasions, Shiro had thought it would be the other way around. Then, their eyes would meet while they were in a group of people or even across the set, and Lance would open his mouth as if he was about to say something - only to close it again. The day would go on as if nothing happened and in the end, Shiro was probably projecting his wishes.

 

So they have been on set for four months and Shiro and Lance were not alone even once.

 

It’s not that Shiro would know what to do, if they were, though. Probably as him to hang out sometime, watch a movie, maybe go for a run together. Maybe he could ask all the questions about Lance that have been burning in his mind. Or, the most likely scenario, he would somehow manage to let it pass by, make idle small talk and again, the opportunity would pass.

 

Sighing, Shiro unlocks his phone once again and decides to google it.

  
  


The next morning, Shiro just barely wakes up to his alarm. After getting hooked by Pidge, he spend the whole night rewatching Lance’s and his promo interviews on youtube, looking at fanart and he might have a read a fanfiction or five.

 

After he got used to the discrepancy between his own experience and the fanworks, it was actually quite nice to see. He hadn’t really thought about what kind of relationship he would like to have with Lance, seeing as it is nowhere near happening. But the idea of Lance and him going on coffee runs before they started filing, or swimming together in the nearby public pool in the evening was cute and domestic. Shiro can imagine Lance being an attentive friend - or even boyfriend - even if it’s not with him. He tried to imagine the Lance he watched every day in these situations and makes him blush a little bit to think of him.

 

But he would bet the other actor is someone to stroke his partner’s cheek before leaning in to kiss them. Or a clingy drunk, hanging off his significant others arms while trying to tell jokes only he finds hilarious. He knows it’s just the imagination of their fans, because the only outed gay actor and the only bisexual man on set for a movie provide opportunity for _shipping_ , as they  call it.

 

But it was still nice to pretend for a while. He makes his way to the communal showers in hopes that the water will wake him up, and sure enough, when he steps out of the small cabin he feels way better than before. Though he should probably make the short drive to pick up some coffee in the little town not far from their location. And maybe buy some just in advance, because this is going to be a long hard day.

 

Shiro feels a bit guilty at thinking that because coffee is not part of the diet he and his manager worked out before filming started, but then again, he couldn’t have known there would be someone like Pidge on set and they would get all these thoughts into his head that make him feel a bit dizzy every time he thinks them and fill him with a kind of longing he hasn’t noticed in a long time.

 

He probably should get in under control before it makes shooting weird, he thinks, turns around the corner and almost runs into Lance.

 

Speak of the devil.

 

Lance looks pretty groggy himself. He has put a face mask on and a towel on top of his head. Shiro, who has only seen him on set gets the impression that this is a very intimate moment to meet someone, right after they get up, and feels his cheeks getting hot immediately. The other man looks at him with a tired smile and greets him. Then he yawns immediately.

 

“You look how I feel,” Shiro says before he can stop himself.

 

Lances smile gets a little brighter at that. “You sure don’t look the part then.” He gets disrupted by yet another yawn. “I’m just not a morning person. Give me a shower and some coffee and I’ll be fine.”

 

This is his chance, Shiro knows. It’s now or probably never. His stomach gets queasy and his brain shuts down. He has to say something now, because if he lets this pass, who knows if he’ll get Lance alone ever again.

 

“I… I was going to drive to town for some of that fancy coffee drinks.” he sounds way more insecure than he normally would and is painfully aware of it. “Do you want to come with?”

 

Here is a moment of awkward silence which makes Shiro bites his tongue and wishes he had never said anything ever. This is not how you get to know people. You meet them in groups first, and then, if you get along well, it might not feel weird when you get them alone. And he just jumped over at least three steps in this succession. Way to go, Shiro.

 

But then, after a few agonizing seconds. Lance slowly nods. “That’s a really good idea. I can’t stand the sewage they sell for coffee at breakfast.” He grins. “But give me some time to get presentable, I don’t want to scare the Baristas when I turn up with half a face mask on my skin.”

 

An undignified giggle breaks from Shiro’s throat. It doesn’t sound impressive, manly or even grown up and he is embarrassed by it immediately. He wants to tell Lance that he looks cute like this, but bites his tongue before he can. _This is not a fanfiction_ , he reminds himself. c

 

“I’ll be waiting by the trailers,” he answers instead, relieved he got out a straight sentence. Lance gives him a thumbs up and vanishes in the shower as unceremoniously as they met in the first place.

  
  


Time cannot pass fast enough for Shiro who is giddy the whole time he waits for Lance (which is a solid forty-five minutes and then the other man informed him he had hurried up for him), but it turns out to be worth it.

 

Once Lance has his favorite drink  (Shiro memorized the order for future reference) in hand and has taken a few sips, his attitude completely changes and is the same Shiro already recognized from work. He is an entertainer, telling anecdotes about his siblings, his mom and his life in Cuba. Shiro in turn tells him about the stupid things him and his best friend Matt have gotten up to in college, where they both studied acting.

 

They take their time, wandering around the small town for a bit while they drink, even though that means Shiro has to speed them back to set because they’re late. When they arrive and Shiro stops abruptly and with screeching brakes, Lance laughs. They take their thermos and hurry into the make-up trailer while still a bit breathless and on a high from a venti Starbucks drinks.

 

Shiro slowly settles into professionalism again, which is hard because Lance keeps making faces at him from the chair next to his. This went better than he expected, and he feels the glow in his cheeks hours into shooting. Today there is a smile plastered across his face and it won’t go away, it’s so striking that even Pidge notices when they find him between takes.

 

“You’re in a good mood today.”

 

“Yeah, I had a really good morning.”

 

Pidge smirks at that, as if they know exactly what Shiro is talking about. Well, to be honest, they probably do.

 

“Told you you wanted to see the pics,” they comment, pat him on the shoulder and scurry off towards Hunk, who baked sugar free cookies for the people on set.

 

Shiro is not sure he understands completely what Pidge was up to. He never fully does. So he just shrugs to himself. Whatever they intended to achieve, one thing they definitely accomplished in the process: Shiro ships it.

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
